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Key words that begin with the letter E

by Phil Bartle

ECONOMIC DIMENSION OF COMMUNITY

The economic dimension of community is its various ways and means of production and allocation of scarce and useful goods and services (wealth), whether that is through gift giving, obligations, barter, market trade, transfer payments,  lottery winning (gambling) or state allocations. (See Community).

EFFECT

When used as a noun, the word "effect" implies the result of some other action or condition which causes it.

"The effect of your misbehaving is that you will not find much success as a community mobiliser."

When used as a verb, "to effect" means to make something happen.

EFFICIENCY

Efficiency can be defined as being able to "Get more output for less input (maximize our efficiency)"

One catchy phrase that may illustrate this is, "Do not work hard; get results." Here the admired value of "hard work" (the means or the input) is shown to be less important than the result of that work (the end or output).

It is not intended as an encouragement to be lazy, but as an encouragement to use resources (including one's own labour) wisely, and therefore (in this context) efficiently.

ELEPHANT STORY

This a story used to illustrate that something looks different from different perspectives.

It is about seven blind men who each touch a different part of an elephant, and then each have a different idea of what an elephant is. See the Elephant Story.

It is used on this web site to illustrate that a "community," like all social organizations, has many aspects but they can not all be seen at the same time.

EMIGRATION

Movement of people out of a population. Opposite of immigration. One of the four factors affecting the size of population. (With immigration, birth rate, death rate).

See Demography.

EMPOWERMENT

The empowerment of a community (or organization) is an increase in its strength, improvement in its capacity (ability) to accomplish its goals.

Like capacity development, it is a process of becoming stronger. See "Measuring Empowerment" for a list of the sixteen elements of power or capacity, and a participatory method of measuring its increase.

The empowerment methodology, in contrast to the charity approach, aims at strengthening the community rather than encouraging it to remain dependant upon outside resources.

The empowerment methodology, therefore, does not make everything easy for the community, because it sees that struggle and resistance, as in physical exercise, produce more strength.  See Community Empowerment.

See Jihad for an interesting metaphor.

Community development means growing in complexity in all six dimensions of culture.  It differs from community empowerment which means growing stronger. Although the two are different by definition, they are intricately linked to each other.

EMPOWERMENT METHODOLOGY

The training material here is aimed at attacking poverty at the community level, where mobilisation and management training are aimed at empowering low income communities.  The theory behind the skills and techniques here is sociological.

The successful community worker, an applied sociologist, can not do the best job, however, unless she or he is familiar with some of the basic principles that lie behind the offering of skills or describing the programmes to be set up.

It is built up of several important principles

1. The balance of power (opinion makers and leaders, not merely the demographic majority) must desire the community to become more self reliant and willing to make efforts and sacricfices to become so.  (Leaders and opinion makers may be formal and/or informal, officially recognised and/or unrecognised). Without this, the mobiliser would be wasting time and better employed in another community or organization;

2. An experienced and/or trained agent must be available to intervene to stimulate and guide the community to organize and take action to become more self reliant. The mobiliser may be one with natural talents and skills, while the training in this web site is aimed at developing and sharpening those skills and talents;

3. While assistance can be offered, it should not be charity assistance which promotes dependency and weakness, but partnership, assistance and training that promotes self reliance and increased capacity;

4. Recipient organisations or communities should not be controlled or forced into change, but professionals trained as activists of mobilisers should intervene with stimulation, information and guidance. Social engineering must be avoided. Persuasian and faciltation are needed;

5. Organisms become stronger by exercising, struggling, and facing adversity. Empowerment methodology incorporates this principle for social organisations. Sports coaches use the slogan, "No pain; no gain." We do not promote pain, but do promote struggle and effort;

6. Hands on participation, especially in decision making, by the recipients, is essential for their increase in capacity. Decisions can not be made for or on behalf of the community;

7. A substantial proportion (it varies) of the resources needed for a community project (ie the action) must be provided by the community members themselves;

8. We need to aim at the participants from the beginning taking full control, exercising full decision making, and accepting full responsibilityfor the actions which will lead to their increased strength.

This is the core set of principles of the empowerment methodology.

ENABLE

To enable means to permit or increase the ability of something.

See: Enablement.

Two extensions of the word, (1) "enabling" (as in an enabling environment) and (2) "enablement" (as in a process of enabling a community or organization to become stronger), used in this methodology, are not usually found in most orthodox dictionaries.

See "Preparing a Policy Paper."

ENABLING ENVIRONMENT

This is an environment (political, regulatory) around a community that enables the community to unite, identify its own resources, engage in self help activities, and become more self reliant.

The practices, attitudes, behaviour, rules, regulations, laws, of leaders, civil servants, politicians, of central and district governments, all contribute to the degree of enablement around a community.  See Facilitate.

ENCULTURATION

The process of learning that takes a baby (as a biological organism) and humanizes it. To become human (ie to obtain culture).

We all start our own process of enculturation at birth, and it continues until death.  We learn, through symbols, all the six dimensions of culture.

Looked at from the point of view of society and culture, the process is also the way that society and its intitutions reproduce and continue after the deaths of its human carriers.

Differs from acculturation.   See Socialization.

EPISTEMOLOGY

The study of how we know.

See: Knowing.

EQUALITARIAN:

Equalitarian is an ideal of everyone being equal. In the real world, however, we know that people are born with different strengths and potentials, and into families with different wealth and power. It may be unfair, but who has ever promised us that life would be fair?

What is important, then, is that we are all treated equally under the law, without laws that are different for the privileged than for the poor. Furthermore, we have the ideal that we all have equal opportunities to help and to improve ourselves, for example, the same opportunities to obtain an education.

EVALUATION

A process of allocating value on what a project has achieved (in relation to its objectives). Judging.

Differs from monitoring which should be value-free observation. (See Evaluation and value).

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

The Executive Committee, is also called the Project Committee, Development Committee, CBO (Community Based Organization) or CIC (Community Implementing Committee) of the community.

It should be chosen by the community as a whole, from among all its members, and be responsible for carrying out the wishes of the whole community.

© Copyright 1967, 1987, 2007 Phil Bartle
Web Design by Lourdes Sada

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Last update: 2015.10.02